stars, sex and nudity buzz : 12/12/2012

Heads up on upcoming stripper movie starring Ali Cobrin in the title role of Monica and Briana Evigan as Tasha. Both Cobrin and Evigan are playing exotic dancers @ strippers. Great cast by the way. We have Carmen Electra in a lesbian relationship with K.D. Aubert who plays Jade Lee the stripper. Others in the cast includes Nia Peeples, Mariel Hemingway, sexy hot Korrina Rico (who auditioned for a role in True Blood last season but didn't get it) as Paris (a stripper?). There is a four way love scene according to the director Greg Carter who also describes the movie asIndecent Proposal meets Dancing at the Blue Iguana which sounds promising consideringBlue Iguana is one of the best stripper pic ever made. Greg made some drastic changes to the original storyline to attract distributors. It was based on his life working in the exotic club and watching his wife giving customers lap dance. The movie will be screened at film festivals starting from March 2013. It will be picked up quickly if all the ladies get naked at some point especially Briana. She will be the main selling point.

The rough synopsis:Monica (working title) focuses on a young fiancée who takes a job as an exotic dancer to care for her ailing father.

Briana jammin in the car on the way to last week of shooting Monica

Last day on Monica ! Check out them eyes !

2nd day on set of my new movie! Really excited about this one and I think y'all will be tooooooo

Ali with co-star Lew temple

Ali in stripper get-up

tammy_torres Had so much fun filming with @WesleyJonathan @kdaubert1 @CarmenElectra @JonathanDBrown Too much SEXY!! Set was on FiYaaaaa!!

Lynn Whitfield, Carmen Electra, Lisa Raye, KD Aubert, Ali Cobrin, Nia Peoples, Briana Evigan on the set of my new film MONICA. Many more stars to come… This will be the best movie ever made about strippers : )

* a word of caution. There is unlikely to be any nudity from Briana Evigan. She is waiting for the perfect script and the right time to show her tits.This is a modest budgeted indie but you never can guess what goes on in a woman's head. Laura Prepon nude debut is the best example.Keeping my fingers crossed anyway. In fact I praying this isn't the type of movie where every stripper keep their top on!

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Actress Sues Cinemax After Being 'Blindsided' by Sex Scenes

Anne G., whose lawyer says she worked on the show "Femme Fatales," claims she was bullied into performing nude and having simulated sex with the threat of being sued.

An actress identified only as Anne G filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday against Time Warner, HBO, Cinemax and a production company called True Crime LLC claiming that she was bullied into performing nude scenes, sexually harassed and placed in a dangerous work environment.

While the suit does not name the show she worked on, an attorney who filed the suit, David Olan of Santa Monica, tells The Hollywood Reporter that Anne G had worked on a single episode of the late-night Cinemax series Femme Fatales that was titled "Jail Break."

Anne G claims in the suit that she was not told when she auditioned or when she was hired under an AFTRA contract that she would be required to perform scenes in the nude and simulate sexual intercourse. She says that on Dec. 6, 2011, the first day of shooting, “she was blindsided with rewrite after rewrite which necessitated her character to simulate sexual intercourse and for her to appear nude but for pasties on her nipples and a sticker on her private parts.”

She alleges this was all done “without the proper health and safety protections,” nor was the set closed except for essential production crew as union rules require.

When Anne G complained that she was not comfortable with what she was being asked to do and that she never would have agreed to the job if she knew it involved “soft-core porn,” the suit says, she was told if she did not perform as requested, her contract allowed producers to sue her for $100,000 for being in breach of contract.“Under the duress and threat of significant pecuniary retribution if she did not comply,” says the lawsuit.

In the suit, she names Steve Kriozere as “executive director” of the production and Joe Schwartz as assistant director. She charges they made “inappropriate sexual comments to her,” including telling her that showing her “tits” was a “prerequisite to even be on this show.”

The suit says Anne G was “required to rehearse practically nude due to the malfunctioning pasties on a nonclosed set devoid of nonessential production crew. The on-set rewrites while the camera was rolling, sexual comments, threats of financial retribution, among other things, created an intimidating, sexually hostile and offensive work environment.”

On the IMDB service, Kriozere is listed as an executive producer of Femme Fatales.In a July 2010 article in The Hollywood Reporter, Femme Fatales is described as a “thriller anthology series” based on a men’s magazine of the same name. The article said the series would have a “strong erotic component.”

A press release in May 2011 said the first of 13 episodes of Femme Fatale would air beginning May 13, 2011. It was described as a “sizzling show” with a plot built around a “murder mystery, hidden secrets and of course femme fatales.”

In response to a call for comment to the True Crime production office, another producer said he had not yet seen the suit and would have no comment until after he conferred with the show's attorney.

A spokesperson for HBO and Cinemax tells THR that Femme Fatales was overseen from the company's New York headquarters, and there no one was available to comment.

* It's almost comical they're being sued for the lamest and without a doubt the worst sex scene ever on Femme Fatale show. You barely see her face and it was shot in low lighting crap. Actually thought there was body double involved....face and body doesn't appear in the same frame shot. I thought the show runner and everyone involved respected the actress obvious discomfort and filmed the scene in very unlike Femme Fatales manner. The suit could stalled or end any hope of Season 3 which will be a big blow for fans of the series. The producers just have to show the court the casting notice and nudity requirement for the role (the casting director will almost certainly vouch for them) to put the suit in their favor.Rewrites on the set are practically the norm. I did mentioned about it on Yvonne Strahovski's Dexterized article; how Camille Luddington was constantly blind-sided by the changes in the script. I think Anne G (like so many of Femme Fatales first-time nudies) regrets appearing on the show and was ashamed being nude in front of so many strangers (she may have a case there if it wasn't a closed set as stipulated and proven to be so). That's the risk hiring desperate actresses (usually between 27-to-35) looking for a break or trying to stay relevant on Hollywood scene. Poor choices, financial worries and rep who doesn't give a crap anymore as they're 'expired' commodities also lead many of the girls to taking off their clothes on cable shows. More details about the scene and actress here.

The war is over. Beyond the prison walls, Troy and its people burn. Inside the prison, the city's captive women await their fate. Stalking the antiseptic confines of its mother and baby unit is Hecuba, the fallen Trojan queen, still clinging to the privileges of rank, even as she and her daughter-in-law, Andromache, both treat the Chorus, a pregnant woman handcuffed to a bed, with arrogant disdain. Her grief at what has been before will soon be drowned out by the horror of what is to come, as the Greek lust for vengeance consumes everything - man, woman and baby - in its path. Caroline Bird’s updating of Euripides’ great anti-war play is Greek tragedy distilled to modern parable, an intimate, charged ninety minutes formed around a group of universally strong performances; notably Louise Brealey (Sherlock's pathologist of choice) pulling triple duty in three roles the original text delegated to three separate cast members.

Achieving such a feat is no small task, but each character is incredibly distinct from the others. Hecuba’s daughter Cassandra, driven mad by visions, appears here in red striped pyjamas, all relentless fury and febrile energy. Brealey conveys the madness as demented childishness. She scatters grapes, and tips the Chorus's bed at a slant so that her head is dangerously near the floor; delivering a rapid-fire speech about fire and violence, almost at a whisper. Andromache, mother of Hecuba’s doomed infant grandson and trophy widow of the city’s most decorated soldier, sees Brealey wheelchair bound but marked with a defiant maternal spirit that eventually reaches its limit. Finally, as Helen of Troy, the instigator of the entire situation, she is coiled sexuality, brazenly willing to shock her contemporaries through tactical nudity, and ultimately willing to do anything to survive.

A lengthy eyeful of Brealey fully nude in that last role establishes her as a temptress to remember, coos What's On Stage, her stark sexuality all the more poignant for the play's repeated discussion of rape. As the one who brought death upon both sides of the Trojan war, Helen is also a magnificent lightning-rod for the vitriol of the other characters, particularly Hecuba, who has lost everything because of the actions of her former favourite. Three women, three different ages and mindsets and depictions of femininity in thrall - the virgin, the mother, the whore - all broken in their own way and all ultimately doomed.So, what’s worse than stripping in public? Well, doing it as you play the world’s most beautiful woman, says actress and journalist Brealey. In a recently published article the Trojan Women lead describes how taking off her clothes on the London stage has changed the way she feels about her body...

It’s October. It’s dusk. It’s the second week of rehearsals for The Trojan Women, a modern version of Euripides’ tragedy in which I’m greedily playing three different roles. I’m standing in a dirty office in the old BBC training building on Marylebone High Street. There are dirty blue carpets on the floor and dirty great fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. There are six other people here. They’re all dressed; I’m in a bath towel that I’m about to let fall to the floor. Nobody knows yet, but I’m not wearing any knickers.

Yesterday I did this scene topless but kept my leggings on. I’ve never had so much eye contact in my life. Today, I’ve resolved to go the whole hog. As I wait for my cue, I feel an utterly primal feeling of fear and wrongness that seems literally to be coming from between my legs. Christopher Haydon, our director, is expecting me to wait until we get into the theatre before I disrobe completely, but I know if I do it too many times with my pants on, I’ll never be able to take them off. I just want to get it over with.

The towel drops. I don’t look down. I put my knickers on backwards. Afterwards we joke that where Chris was sitting, right in the line of fire, will be where I tell my dad to sit when he comes to the show. ‘Hi Dad,’ I wave at the plastic chair, sick to my stomach. ‘Hi.’

On the way home I text my friend Matthew from Morecambe and tell him what I did with my day. He texts back: “It’ll never be this bad again.” I don’t believe him, even for a second. I don’t feel relieved; I don’t feel brave; I feel like a sparrow that’s banged its head on the patio doors. But it turns out he’s right.

“I saw @louisebrealey’s pubes last night. The play was good too,” tweeted a critic from What’s On Stage magazine the day after Trojan Women opened. Although none of them have so far felt the need to share the experience on social media, a lot of other people besides this charming man have also seen my pubic hair in the past two weeks. In fact, more people have seen my pubic hair in the past two weeks than in the previous two decades combined.

When I first read Caroline Bird’s fierce, funny script and saw the stage direction: ‘Helen drops her towel; she is in no hurry to get dressed’, I felt a bit ill and wondered if the scene would have the same impact without the nudity. But Helen of Troy’s towel is not just a towel; it’s a gauntlet. She drops it to embarrass her mortal enemy; to show that – although her life’s on the line – she’s not going down without a fight. Crucially her nakedness also lets the audience see how bold, how beautiful she feels. It’s not about pubic hair. It’s about power.

Still. The idea of standing naked anywhere in public scared the shit out of me. The idea of standing naked in my own bedroom in front of someone who wants to have sex with me scared the shit out of me. The idea of standing naked in a theatre the size of a corner shop, five feet from the audience, whilst pretending to be Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman on the planet? That sounded like a very bad idea indeed.

“But you’re an actress!” said my best friend when I told her I was afraid. “Yes,” I said. “An actress, not a stripper.” I’ve been doing this for ten years and I’ve never even had to get down to my underwear. It’s not something you sign up for with your Equity card. (Although now I think about it, my bare buttocks were once pressed so hard against a very frosted glass door – in an awful thing with Martine McCutcheon – that the glass broke and my bum was, in both senses, cut.)

“But you’re slim!” she insisted. “You’ve nothing to worry about.” Ah. That old chestnut. Slim women don’t have insecurities about their bodies. Slim women don’t have cellulite or thread veins or knees that always seem to look grubby. Slim women aren’t allowed to be frightened about taking their clothes off in public. Because they are slim.

I have psoriasis. My belly and back sport red scaly patches, a bit like eczema. You can’t catch it. Loads of people have it. But it’s not pretty and it leaves a funny sort of leopard-print pattern on your skin when it deigns to go. From sixteen to eighteen I was covered in a crust from collarbone to calf. (It came back with a vengeance when I was homesick on my first telly job, a three-year contract with Casualty. The make-up artists on the show photographed it for their files. Desperate to leave, I went to see the man in charge and lifted up my top. I’m pretty sure that was the first time anyone had flashed him to get out of a job.)

Like thousands of other women – and thousands of men – I also have stretch marks. I grew four inches one summer holiday and the skin on my 13-year-old bottom neglected to keep pace. Ever since I’ve had white lines that circle the slopes of my thighs like terracettes. Normally I don’t give them a second thought. But normally I’m not naked in public.

In the BBC series Sherlock I play Molly Hooper, the awkward, besotted morgue mouse with the Christmas-present bow in her hair; not Irene Adler, the feline dominatrix with the slash of a red mouth and the flawless arse. (I almost got to stand in as Irene at the read-through for A Scandal In Belgravia; but on the big day Lara Pulver was free after all.) My point is that when you act on television, you’re obliged to think about how you look in objective terms. It saves time, and tears, because how they say you look is how they say you’re cast. So I learned very early on that I’m not “telly beautiful”. I’m “girl-next-door”. I’m “quirky”.

The theatre, though, is a different world. Actors pretend on stage, audiences pretend in their seats and, together, if everyone stops disbelieving hard enough for long enough, we might magic up something amazing. In the theatre I can be a nine year old on a swing; I can be a sex-mad teenager in platform heels; I can be from Sunderland.

In the theatre, the logic runs, I can be Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. My 69-year-old friend George, not realising we were doing an update of a Greek tragedy, tried to help: “It’ll be fine, you’ll be wearing a mask.”

In the end it was fine. I realised playing Helen of Troy was impossible, like playing the idea of a woman. So I ditched the surname. In my head, I’m just plain Helen.

Horror films scare me witless but I absolutely love them. It’s the same story with acting: I find it frightening but the fear makes me feel; it makes me feel alive. And while you’re screaming your head off, you’re definitely not dead. The prospect of standing in front of people with nothing on and feeling great about it was alien, horrific, and completely intoxicating.

I really wanted to know what it felt like to be that woman. Not the psoriatic sixteen year old who looked in the mirror and saw The Singing Detective. Not the apple-cheeked student who spent all three years at university with a jumper tied round her waist to hide her bum (they were the dark days of high-waisted jeans). And not the actress who, last week, finally put two books on cellulite in the recycling. Not her. Not me.

Last night an elderly audience member asked me after the show if I thought I’d given away something precious by letting people see my body. I didn’t know how to answer her, but it made me think. The fact is, I’ve gained way more than I’ve lost. I stand there every night, totally naked, with people gawping or giggling or gasping and looking away, and I feel okay about it. I feel good about it. Some nights I even feel bold and beautiful. I do, however, feel a bit uneasy about how I got there.

Exposing myself to 75 strangers a night has made me think a lot about what psychologist Susie Orbach calls “body terror”, the chip in your brain that tells you your body isn’t good enough but if you buy this cream, eat this thing, do this exercise, you can look like Rhianna and you will be happy. The idea that to be beautiful you must have one specific body: poreless skin, endless legs, tits that would get stuck in a champagne glass.

I grew my underarm hair for the occasion because I wanted to be naked on my terms. Or it was something else to hide behind. Or I wanted to make a point, that you could be beautiful with hairy arm-pits. I don’t know, really. The thing is, women feel like we have a choice about shaving, but we don’t. Not really. It’s not any sort of real choice. It’s a choice between looking normal and making most potential lovers gag. All but one man I told was openly appalled. My ex said, ‘That’s disgusting, you’ll look like a Minotaur.’ He’s a funny man. I was nervous about it. Up to the last minute I wasn’t at all sure that I wasn’t going to shave it off in the secret shower behind the loo roll-holder in The Gate’s toilet on press night. But a weird thing happened: I started to like it. When you can see my pubic hair as well, it looks kind of great – like it matches. Like a hat and gloves. Like it’s meant to be there.

We all know the bleached, waxed, sprayed, toned, sliced, photo-shopped people we see every day aren’t real. It’s not how we are. It’s not how we’re meant to be. It’s rubbish. But it’s insidious rubbish. It’s hard not to want to look, well, better. And, as an actress, I’m part of the problem. Actors are illusionists. We feel like we have to be; we get work based on what we look like. I know which angle I look best at. It’s the angle I present to photographers. It’s the angle I’m presenting in the photo with this piece.

I don’t want the young women who look up to me because I’m a feminist and I’m in a TV show they love to feel like they somehow fall short. So I should have stood on stage as Helen of Troy, flaws and all, and thumbed my nose at body terror and body fascism. But I couldn’t; I just wasn’t brave enough.

I knew that to do it, I’d have to pull off the mother and father of all confidence tricks. I’d have to treat my psoriasis with steroids and hope they worked; I’d have to try and tone my thighs; and, if the lighting looked like a Tube train or a shop changing-room, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

In the end it involved a lot of pluck, a little plucking, fourteen hours on a Pilates machine, a pink spotlight pointing at my breasts and actually pumping up the fitness ball my mum bought me one long-ago Christmas. (I opened the box. It came with a free exercise VHS.) In the minute and a half it takes to do a quick change from an distraught, weeping Andromache into La Belle Hélène, our stage manager Jess sluices body oil on my back in as non-erotic a fashion as possible while I smear make-up over my scars and cake on mascara.

It’s getting easier. I’m not sure if the audience can still see the lines on my legs and the leopard spots on my belly and the dimples on my bottom. But the more times I stand out there, the more normal it feels to be naked and not shy; the closer to Helen’s boldness I come; and the more it doesn’t matter if they can. Maybe at some point I’ll even look down.

At some point I should also probably tell my dad I get naked in this play. He’s coming tomorrow. ‘Hi, Dad, if you’re reading this. Hi. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you when to close your eyes.’

The rest of you, you take your chances.

The Gate Theatre, Inner LondonFrom: Thursday, 8th November 2012To: Wednesday, 19 December 2012* She is my type of feminist. Brealey is at that age - I'm beginning to sound like a broken record - when actresses go fuck it and start taking risks. More comfortable with their body. Or rather stopped caring and fearing what others think of how she looks. If she develop a taste for shedding clothes - on screen as well - we could be in for fun times. Who knows maybe she already did in upcoming Delicious (2013).++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Akiko Mendoza: Ultimate Premiere Vixen 2012 (Talents Manila) Grand Coronation Night of Premiere Vixens 3 at Prime Club, Tomas Morato,Quezon City, December 7, 2012.Featuring FHM Premiere Vixens Top 7 Finalist:-Akiko Mendoza- Red Dela Cruz-Danica Torres-Nathalie Hayashi-Bianca Peralta-Cyril Locsin-Cathy FreyThe Ultimate Premiere Vixen Winners: Akiko, Red and Danica

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Felicity Jones is ready to play the lead inFifty Shades of Grey.

Felicity Jones, the Chalet Girl actress, says she would be happy to play Anastasia Steele in the film adaptation of the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

Felicity Jones’s fans are campaigning online for her to be cast in the lead role of the eagerly-awaited film adaptation of the novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

Now, the 29-year-old actress makes it clear to Mandrake that she would happily consent to play Anastasia Steele. “It would be very exciting,” the Chalet Girl actress says at a Belvedere vodka bash. “I read the book and thought it was an interesting read.”

Jones is not fazed by the nudity which would be required if she were to play the billionaire’s sex slave. “It is something you consider individually with each project that you do, but clearly with this particular project it would be necessary,” she informs me.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Stacey Dash is normal! Stacey Dash plays an over-the-top, conflicted version of herself in this new scripted comedy series. STACEY DASH IS NORMAL, coming soon.

* Personally I thought Ashley Hinshaw award winning nudity in "About Cherry" was taddisappointing. I was hoping for full-frontal and couple of sex scenes to really make the movie work for me. Anyway we owe the co-writer/director Stephen Elliott tiny bit of gratitude for casting Ashley. He is now in midst of starting another movie project and he requires our help. It's titled Happy Baby (please click the link)

Posted by Stephen Elliott

Things came up, and continue to come up, on my first movie Cherry. People worked so hard on that movie. Took a big chance with their time and efforts. Harnessed their hopes as if to a chariot. One person turned down a significant opportunity because he thought Cherry was a better one. You place your bets.

When you deliver a movie to a distributor, like IFC, it can cost $25,000 or more, creating the deliverables they need to distribute the film. That's your responsibility. Distributors like IFC are all about minimizing risk. The sales agents take 10% and post pictures of themselves sitting by a pool. Stars will never work with distributors on the cheap, but they'll work with other artists. The distributors let you do the work, cut the good deals with the stars, and then they win. The clearing houses collect and distribute the money, and take half a percent of everything that comes in.

Or you can look at your distributor as a partner. I'm not dogging on IFC. I'm fine with IFC. I'm just talking about a system.

An artist, focused on making art, or just "making it", on some an existential level, doesn't have a chance against an executive who's only interest is in maximizing profits and minimizing risk. Of course a lot of those development people have other dreams. At least for a while, until they wander so far from their path they dream in white.

But I learned on Cherry that you have to have contracts. Not now. Not early on. Early on people work hard with no guarantee and a lot of people realize they don't want to work this hard on a project they don't ultimately control. But you have to have contracts with actors. And insurance. And maybe you have to setup an LLC. I hate that stuff. The producers do a lot of that. The producers talk to agents and managers and gets yelled at and lets everyone down because when anything goes wrong it's the result of something the producer should have seen coming. It's not fair, but it's what happens. Producing is a hard, thankless job, but some people are good at it.

There's 11 hours left on our kickstarter (same link as above). We've made our goal but it would be great to exceed it, so we can have more shooting days, and realistic locations, and a coordinator to help choreograph the fight scene, and so we're in less desperate straights when it's time for post-production. And also because I really think everyone that contributes to this movie will be glad they did. Because the letters informing people about what's going on and soliciting help and opinions will not be coming from the Daily Rumpus, they'll be coming from the kickstarter email list. And you have to be a contributor to be on that list.

p.s. Holy shit, we made our kickstarter goal!!! Can you believe it? I just realized I never sent out a note about that. Here I'm being all heavy about what an artist is, blah blah blah, sacrifice, blah blah, you'll get screwed, blah blah blah. We made our goal 36 hours ago. We made our goal with 46 hours to spare.

After a highly publicized fundraising campaign and late summer shooting schedule, director Ama Lea and her team, including producer Jade Luber of Movies in LA, have finalized the trailer for the soon-to-be released short, ‘RED RED.’

‘RED RED’ is a sexually charged thriller that follows a young woman named Julia as she begins her journey into sexual exploration while trying to repress dark nightmares seemingly from her childhood. Somewhere in this dark fairy tale her nightmares come to life and her lovers are being stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant in bloody, unfathomable ways.

The film is mirrored after the giallo-style films of directors such as Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava. The short is a second endeavor for the director, who is widely known for THE BLOODY BEST PROJECT, a pictorial representation of the horror genre.

Fatality Films, alongside Movies in LA, is pleased to present the film under their banner, which is in pre-production on several features and projects with producers Scott Spiegel and Andrea Albin at the helm.

* The lead actress is 27-years old Liz Harvey - a nude model/exhibitionist from Chicago. More of Liz here and here and here.

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Aishwarya Rai on turning down Brad Pitt : 'The role needed a lot of lovemaking'

Eminent British TV personality, Sir David Frost traveled to Mumbai, India to talk to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, former Miss World, also referred as “The Queen of Bollywood” by her fans and the international media. The two sat and talked in length about life, career and motherhood, reports Al Jazeera English on Dec. 6.

Aishwarya Rai is one of Bollywood’s most popular faces, acclaimed highly for her work at home. However, the most beautiful woman in the world could not make a footing in Hollywood. In fact, she turned down a chance to star against Brad Pitt in “Troy.”

When asked the reason, the 39-year old actor said, "The very material on celluloid involved a lot of lovemaking scenes that I wasn't comfortable with."

Despite the recognition Hollywood could bring, Ms. Rai chose to do conservative films like “Bride and Prejudice,” “The Last Legion,” “Pink Panther 2” and “Provoked.” While some of the movies turned out to be commercial success and brought Aishwarya the buzz and the attention, they failed in getting the acclaim the actor was vying for.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who took a break from acting after become a mother, is currently looking at scripts to make that much-anticipated comeback.

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead has revealed researching to play a recovering alcoholic in new film Smashed helped her confront some of her own problems.

The Scott Pilgrim Vs The World star plays a teacher who joins Alcoholics Anonymous in the indie film, and found she related to her character's habit of bottling up her problems.

Mary Elizabeth said: "I'm a bottler upper, which is one of the ways I could really relate to this film. I was going through my own issues and for the first time acknowledging out loud some of the stuff that I was going through.

"It definitely paralleled what Kate was going through, because I come from a very conservative family, and people who don't really talk about those things. I'm much more of a 'everything's fine, keep things sunny', kind of person and then once you start saying, 'this actually makes me unhappy', it can really start to unravel a bunch of things in your life that you haven't looked at. So I went through my own personal stuff through the film."

The 28-year-old actress also revealed she used a form or hypnosis to make herself feel drunk for the drunk scenes in the film.

"I was terrified. I'd never had to do a drunk scene before. So I sought out acting techniques to try out and I found one that worked pretty well.

"It was kind of like a sense memory thing of taking yourself through what it feels like to get drunk - almost like hypnosis in a way!

"You close your eyes and really think about what it feels like in every little minute detail and then you open your eyes and you feel really glazed over and out of it."

::Smashed is released in cinemas on Friday December 14, 2012.

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Why Netflix's Future is in 'House of Cards,' 'Arrested Development' - Not Disney

Netflix hailed as a "game-changer" its landmark deal last week to bring Disney movies to the streaming service. But while that deal may be significant, it pales in importance next to another looming development -- the February debut of its original series “House of Cards.”

The economic benefits of the Disney deal, which gives the company streaming rights to much of Disney's catalog and straight-to-DVD movies as well as the exclusive rights to the studio's new movies from 2016 to 2018, won’t be felt for years.But the rollout of new, made-for-Netflix shows, which moves the company into a game owned by broadcast and cable -- and follows a model set by everyone from HBO to AMC -- will be a near-term bellwether of the company's future success, analysts and observers say.

"You don't identify a movie you watch on TV with a channel, but you definitely identify an original series with a channel," Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, told TheWrap. "What Netflix is doing with its original series is getting something exclusive that makes you have to go to Netflix if you want to see it. It's branding."

While the company's first foray into original programming -- Steven Van Zandt's "Lilyhammer" -- didn't make much of a splash, the new shows debuting next year look far more promising.They include the long-awaited rebirth of cult favorite “Arrested Development” and original pieces like Eli Roth's "Hemlock Grove," Jenji Kohan's "Orange Is the New Black" and “House of Cards,” from director David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey.

Like "Lilyhammer," all episodes of the shows' first seasons will be released at once, allowing for binge viewing by Netflix subscribers.The Disney deal is momentous in that it marks the first time a digital pay-TV distributor has earned exclusive rights to a major studio's new releases. Both analysts and studio executives say Netflix will pay more than $300 million a year for those rights, a startling sum for a company that has minimized the importance of films. Netflix has declined to discuss any figures.

Some analysts argue the Disney deal is a positive development, but one that will not move the needle when it comes to attracting new members.

"Netflix customers will like it when Disney movies show up, but not many people will want to sign up for Netflix because they have 15 new movies a year I want to see," Pachter said.

That's why Netflix bankrolled “Arrested Development,” a show canceled by Fox in 2006 that still has a small but loyal audience, one that will assuredly watch the new season on Netflix. That's also why it has invested in so many new shows from established artists like Kohan, who created "Weeds," and Roth, a successful horror filmmaker.

It also has committed a reported $100 million for two seasons of “House of Cards,” as well as offering complete creative freedom to Fincher and his team.

The money the streaming service spends on its own shows is a pittance compared to what it shells out in licensing deals, but that original content will distinguish Netflix from competitors in broadcast, like HBO, and in digital, like Amazon.

"Everybody is trying to get their brand to the top of people's minds, and sometimes that requires a substantial expenditure and doing something different, like original production," Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at Katz Television Group, told TheWrap.

More than any of its competitors in the streaming-video market, Netflix is attempting to transform itself into a digitized form of HBO, which began by airing studio movies.

HBO later added lower-cost programming, such as stand-up comedy shows, and eventually original series and films. Showtime, Starz and others soon followed.Because it is not locked into a schedule, Netflix can host an unlimited amount of programming and owns a wealth of information about its subscribers to tailor its offerings to specific viewers and track their success.

Figuring out just what constitutes a "hit," however, will be difficult. As it has with previous original shows like “Lilyhammer," Netflix will not release viewing numbers for its upcoming shows. The company stresses that immediate viewing is less important than developing a loyal following over time.

As for the Disney deal, Netflix already had rights to films from that studio and Sony under an agreement with Starz, which in September 2011 opted not to renew its deal.

"They got something they used to have and had to pay a lot more money for it," Seth Willenson, a library-valuation expert, producer and former studio executive told TheWrap.

So what changed? Exclusivity.

Disney's new releases will appear on Netflix during the same window when they would have been showing on an HBO or another pay channel. It also means that new rivals, such as Amazon and Hulu Plus, won't be getting the latest "Avengers" sequel at the same time -- or the upcoming series of new "Star Wars" films.

"The argument is that what they are getting now from Disney will only be on Netflix," Vasily Karasyov, an analyst with Susquehanna told TheWrap. "What they were getting before was only on Starz. It's more exclusive. They are trying to do what Starz did in the '90s and buy up rights and put it on the map."

Chief Creative Officer Ted Sarandos

At the UBS conference last week in New York, Chief Creative Officer Ted Sarandos teased the possibility of pursuing exclusive deals with more studios as well.This new attraction to movies represents a change of tune for the Los Altos, Calif.-based company. After all, Netflix has been publicly dismissive in recent months of film’s importance to its service, stressing its viewers’ penchant for binge-watching television shows, like AMC's "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men."

About 60 percent of Netflix viewing time is spent on TV, a number that has only grown in recent years.

Exclusivity increasingly motivates its decision-making on the TV side as well, which is one reason it allowed its deal with A-and-E Networks to expire in September, taking shows like "Storage Wars" and "Hoarders" off Netflix.

And nothing is more exclusive than content you fund yourself.

"It wants content unique to its platform," Karasyov said. "No one says, 'Come to my website because we have the same stuff everyone else does.'"

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First Photo of January Jones in Period Thriller ‘Sweetwater’

The big screen career of ‘Mad Men’s actress January Jones hasn’t exactly set the world alight, but she’s probably hoping that an upcoming performance in Sundance pick Sweetwater could change all of that going into 2013. The official synopsis for the film reads:“In the late 1800s, a fanatical religious leader, a renegade Sheriff, and a former prostitute collide in a blood triangle on the rugged plains of the New Mexico Territory.”Directed by Logan and Noah Miller and co-starring Ed Harris, Jason Isaacs, Eduardo Noriega, Steven Rude and Amy Madigan, ‘Sweetwater’ will be screened in the premieres category at Sundance, and will arrive in theaters sometime next year.

This past weekend some of the guys and I decided, since we had recently been paid, to head out for some Christmas shopping. While we walking around the mall, we spotted a sign for a place called SpaLand. Figuring we could all use a relaxing time, it was decided to give this place a shot. And thus began my first experience with a Korean bath house, or Jjimjilbang.Jjimjilbang’s are gender segregated hot baths. The men are herded to one side while the women to the other. Once inside, there are saunas, jacuzzis, and showers. After your hot tub experience, the genders are brought back together for more treats: massages, foot baths, cafes, sleeping mats, dvd viewing rooms, and steam rooms. All of which sets a more Zen-like mood than a feng-shui rock garden.

It probably goes without saying that since I had never experienced anything quite like this before I was both excited and apprehensive. I didn’t know what to expect as we paid the cashier and took the escalator up a flight. Obviously, my mind was picturing something like this:

Only In My Dreams…

Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed because in actuality, this is much more accurate:

Yikes!

Join me as I walk you through my inaugural visit…

As in all Korean establishments, the first garment of clothing you lose upon entering are your shoes. Lockers are conveniently placed by the entrance and, after you pay the $12.00, you’re given a number. This number is the locker number for your shoes and then once you’re inside, a separate locker for your clothes. Not only that, but this number stays with you, allowing you to charge everything you buy to it, similar to a hotel room. Before you leave, they tally your bill and you pay.

The first thing you do in a Korean Bath House is get naked. Once you’re naked, and surrounded by dozens of other naked Korean men (some as young as 13 but most old enough to by your father or grandfather), you head into the wet bath room. It’s a huge room full of multiple hot and cold tubs of various temperatures. You can hop into a scalding hot pool, a freezing cold one, one with jets, or another with beds in the water.

It Looks Like This

There’s even a bucket of ice water tied to a string that you can stand beneath and dunk yourself (or your buddy – who will invariably scream like a little girl and send the old men covering what little packages they may have and running for the hills).

You can jump between tubs too. Start hot, get cold. Whatever you want! Have a ball… have two balls. There are plenty to go around.

When you’re tired of the tubs, there are a handful of saunas (again of varying temperatures) so you can sweat your ass off. I’ve never in my life seen so many unattractive, naked, old, Asian men in the same place and at the same time before. And if you tell me you hate being stared at in public by strangers, I DON’T WANNA HEAR IT… EVER!!!

Feng Shui?

After the wet bath room, it’s time to head into the common areas. But don’t leave without showering up though. Koreans are nothing if not spic and span. And the spa provides plenty of towels, soap, body wash, shampoo, shaving cream, hair gel, mousse, blow dryers, after shave, and cologne.

Once you put your robes back on you get to see the women (seems backwards to me, but whatever). Both ladies and men’s jjimjilbang rooms (that’s slightly redundant since the Korean word ‘bang’ translates to ‘room’) empty into a long hallway. At the end of the hallway is the second most relaxing place I’ve ever been (other than the Caribbean white sand beaches). Hard wood floors separated mini pools everywhere in which people waded their feet to soak the salts into their skin. Additionally, the spa featured another dozen different varieties of coed (finally) steam rooms. One had an Egyptian theme, another was Roman, and a third was Turkish.

The Steam Hall

Couples young and old, walked hand in hand through the gardens and grounds and even cuddled next to each other on sleeping mats while sharing granola and yogurt treats. The boys and I decided to head upstairs to get massages. Options, options, options. They offered so many options, I wasn’t sure what to choose. They offered Korean, Swedish, Deep tissue, and a handful of others for $100 an hour. We chose a more limited massage: 50 minute upper body/feet for about $60. It wasn’t the best massage I’ve ever had but it was good enough.

By the time we were ready to leave, we had spent over an hour sweating, another hour getting the knots in our backs and shoulders worked out, and another hour snoozing in the Zen garden. I’ve never been more relaxed in my life. I felt like I was on a vacation. If you live near a place labeled: Korean Bath House, and you’re not faint of heart (or shy… at all… in any way…), I highly recommend giving it a shot.

With any luck, next time, I’ll see what the ladies side is like. Of course, I’ve never been very lucky.